The Most Miraculous Miracle

Friday was the celebration of The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Saturday Santa Lucia, Monday the first day of Hannukah and Thursday a week later is Christmas. All celebrate various miracles—the Virgin Mary appearing four times to a poor Mexican peasant and speaking to him in his native language, Nahuatl. An Italian early Christian who couldn’t be moved or burned by the pagan authorities and whose mother was miraculous cured by St. Agatha, another early Christian martyr. Oil needed to light the menorah in a reclaimed Jewish temple that should have only lasted one night lasting for eight nights. A baby born from a Virgin mother who grew up performing other miracles, turning water to wine, walking on water, feeding 5,000 hungry people with five loaves and two fish and resurrecting from the dead. Miracles abounding.

 

My question— Who cares? Might this all be a distraction from the real miracles of simply being alive? Why do we need such drama and daily ignore the small miracles constantly surrounding us? The smile of a baby. The flower growing through a crack in the sidewalk. The tree that bears fruit. The extraordinary truth that we are here and breathing and granted the privilege to bear witness to it all? The unfathomable fact of this lonely planet in an infinite universe chosen to sustain life in all its glorious forms. 

 

If that’s not enough, consider Bach. A poem by Mary Oliver. The kindness of a stranger. Who needs miracles greater than that? Instead, we obsess on these super-hero stories and build whole mythologies based on the spectacle miracles with the Jumbotron images and pumped-up soundtrack.  Again, who cares? 

 

If we need these mega-miracles, how about Jesus showing up with his loaves and fishes to feed the homeless in San Francisco? Saint Lucy coming back to marry Elon Musk and convincing him to give his money to those in need. (Or at least pay his damn taxes!) I’m glad Juan Diego had a nice conversation with the Virgin Mary, but why doesn’t she get a slot on FOX news instead and reveal how they’ve sold their soul to the Devil and fooled innocent people to get on board with them? And that oil that lasted eight nights? That surely would be a more efficient use of our limited resources that keep our houses warmed and cars fueled. You get the idea.

 

I could find a magic lamp tomorrow and rub the genie out of it who would perform magical miracles, but still I would ask, “So what? Does this make me kinder? Does it help me learn to pay attention to the birds outside my window, savor a breath of fresh air and a sip of clear, pure water and feel that such pleasures are enough to savor life fully? Perhaps more than enough.”

 

There is one December Holiday approaching celebrating someone who understood that a miracle need not be a ground-shaking awe-inspiring external event. That this definition of miracle is a distraction from the closer, everyday miracles constantly in our presence if we only attuned ourselves to their presence. The truer definition is available to us all, a revelation of the divine in both the seen and the unseen world. They don’t ask for our belief or faith in what someone else reportedly did or reported what happened but invite our participation through our own efforts and attention. 

That Holiday is this Wednesday, December 17^th and is known as Rumi’s Wedding Night. Rumi is the Persian/ Afghani/ Turkish spiritual teacher and poet who died on that date in 1273. Here’s how he talked about the miraculous:

 

“Make everything in you an ear, each atom of your being, and you will hear at every moment what the Source is whispering to you— you are—we all are—the beloved of the beloved, and in every moment, in every event of your life, the Beloved is whispering to you exactly what you need to hear and know. Who can ever explain this miracle? It simply is.”

 

So there you have it. Five major holidays from three major religions within two weeks of each other and all celebrating miracles. May I suggest that the miracles we most need to celebrate are those Rumi speaks of? Forever fresh, forever new, forever singing of our profound connections and ending the squabbles between religions. Awakening to this possibility would perhaps be the most miraculous miracle of them all.

 

Happy Holidays!